10 tips for the new community manager

Most commonly, community managers are responsible for engaging current and potential customers via social media and cultivating vibrant and enthusiastic communities around their products and services.

This is, however, just one kind of community manager. Some community managers facilitate conversations in private online forums, work with internal company intranets, or don’t use social media at all.

Community managers must strike a balance. Externally, they are the voices of their brands in social media, serving as social media strategists, customer service managers, content creators, product managers, and evangelists. Internally, they are the voice of the communities at their companies. Community managers bring the conversations they have with community members to the forefront of marketing, customer service, and product discussions, epitomizing the value and function of a social business.

Because the function of a community manager varies by company, there is no one magic thing that makes a community management program work. However, some common themes have surfaced, and the following tips should help new and aspiring community managers—and maybe even veterans in that capacity.

1. Fish where the fish are.